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Show Page 110 A twenty-four-page booklet, which sold for six and one fourth cents, the "Prophetic Almanack" contained calendar information, solar and lunar eclipse predictions and tidal tables, along with extracts from the writings and speeches of Joseph Smith and others. One intriguing aspect of the almanac is "The Mormon Creed," a list of doctrinal concepts in question-and-answer form which offers among the first summary statements of fundamental Mormon belief: "What is man? The offspring of God...What is his final destiny? To be like God. What has God been? Like man...How many gods are there? "There are Lords many, and gods many: but to us there is but one God...What is the kingdom of God? A theocracy; or, in other words, a kingdom governed by direct revelation from God..." 19 Although these answers could not be simpler, they are very far-reaching; the Mormons did not shrink from proclaiming godhood their ultimate destiny, and eternal progression or evolution became the basic justification for the existence of man on earth. Thus Orson's second publication, a miscellany in actuality, contains nevertheless some of the earliest, most straightforward exposition of Mormon cosmology. The almanac also contained the Nauvoo council's memorial to Congress and a letter from Orson Pratt to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Brother Parley was at the same time editing a periodical at New York called The Prophet, helping to advance Joseph Smith's campaign for the presidency. The first week in June 1844, Orson left Washington to join him - by appointment, he preached at the Marion Temperance Hall in Canal Street 20 on June 9 "at the usual hours." But all was not "usual" in the Mormon Church. The rift between Joseph and William Law at Nauvoo had resulted in the formation of a rival "church," presided by Law and a number of other malcontents. These had banded together to publish an opposition newspaper in Nauvoo, to be called |
